Bilal Khan (Quwa)
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Thank you sir for the great info, we've missed you so much!This is a complete local development by AWC. They have adopted the legacy GBU12, but completely absorbed, local electronics, local power source, local detectors. It is an impressive feat of reverse engineering, and very important milestone on the road to indigenous PGMs, hybrid LGB/ Sat guided weapons etc. To do the flight control, you have to complete re-evaluate the system aerodynamics, starting with scratch. So while it looks like a GBU-12, its nothing like it, and performs twice better. It is also integrated with ground and air designators. I hope this clarifies your question.
The Mk 8X series is already indigenized in country, with more than 4 vendors producing the bombs and its accessories.
I hope we can put that expertise to further use. Today, the H2/H4 SOWs offer a unique capability, but it would be very interesting if we could employ the expertise gained from indigenous PGMs and LACMs to develop a successor. Perhaps something that retains the H2/H4's heavy 600+ kg warhead capacity, but can function more autonomously (fire-and-forget) and be deployable from a wider assortment of aircraft (esp. JF-17, but later, Project Azm).